SUBTERRANEAN LIGHT-GIVERS. 



33 



CHAPTER V. 



SUBTERRANEAN LIGHT-GIVERS. 



IN wandering through the fields in early morning, we often 

 see little heaps of newly disturbed earth, and occasionally 

 catch glimpses of reddish or pink bodies quickly withdraw- 

 ing into little tunnels in the sod. These are the earthworms, 

 considered the humblest of all animals ; yet, as insignificant 

 as they seem, they are among the most valuable aids to the 

 agriculturist. 



We may appreciate this by selecting a field at random in a 

 good producing country, making a section down through the 

 earth for several feet, when, if carefully done, we shall find 

 innumerable tunnels formed by the worms, leading here, 

 there, and everywhere. In fact, the upper crust of the earth 

 is an endless maze of streets, lanes, arid avenues. A natural- 

 ist has even attempted to calculate the number of these 

 little workers, and has come to the conclusion that they 

 average one hundred thousand to the acre ; and in especially 

 rich ground in New Zealand it was estimated that there were 

 three hundred and forty-eight thousand, four hundred and 

 eighty in a single acre. This vast body of worms is continu- 

 ally at work, boring this way and that, coming to the surface 

 during the night, and retreating to greater depths during the 

 day; and it is at once evident that their tunnels constitute 



